Knightfall
by Gay Jesus Probably
Summary: Order 66 strikes the Jedi Temple on Couruscant. The Jedi Temple strikes back. What, you didn't think this would be easy, did you Vader?
1. How Lucky We Are To Be Alive Right Now

**AN: So today I discovered that I absolutely adore lightsaber fights and in depth analysis of them so uh yeah this monstrosity just kind of happened in my brain and yeah.**

 **So first of all let's be clear: We already know this ain't going to have a happy ending. You're not here to feel joy you're here to watch shit go** _ **down**_ **. This is not about Vader and 501** **st** **getting their asses thrown out and Palpatine getting rekt and everything being happy again, this is about me sitting alone in my room, suddenly saying "Wait how the fuck did one dude and a troop of normal clones manage to take down an entire temple completely filled with superpowered badasses that must have been some awesome shit that went down off screen" and here we are.**

 **There's probably already a canon rendition for what went really went down but fuck that we're on fanfiction for a reason.**

 **And while the majority of the jedi we will be meeting here are OC's, feel vindicated knowing that 99% will be dead by the end. Fun! And since this is obviously a fanfiction about literally everyone but the antagonist fucking dying, perspectives will be bouncing between various jedi a LOT. Because it's a big temple and there is a lot of shit going down all over it at the same time, and for this kind of story it's important to cover all your bases. Also, please know, not everyone that shows up is an OC. I won't say who, but there's one character that shows up between RoTS and ANH whose backstory is literally just "used to be a Jedi." Enjoy guessing who!**

 **Also if you know anything about RoTS you already know this, but I'm going to say it anyways, this fic is absolutely going to have people dying, children dying, and an ungodly amount of violence. There will also be some probably unnecessary breaks in the action for a few paragraphs expositing on strategy or lightsaber forms or whatever, but I LIKE that stuff and if you don't then buddy friend pal chum amigo you've come to the wrong place.**

 **Also so I found this star wars character creator online a few months ago and that thing is literally my favourite thing every because I've made like 10 000 random OC's on it, literally the only problem is that it only has a feminine model. So if you're curious every single girl OC in here is absolutely one I have made and have a good image of. So if you get curious about any of the ladies hmu and I'll send you an image of her because I am always down to talk about my OC's with people.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter One: How Lucky We Are To Be Alive Right Now

Keira absently hummed under her breath as she searched her apartment, trying to find her datapad.

She was an extremely organised person, and normally, the datapad would be exactly where it was supposed to be. Namely, her top right desk drawer, which was reserved for relatively small objects she needed on a day-to-day basis. However, Keira's teenager padawan did not have her organizational skills. Or any particular hang ups about privacy.

So once again, Keira had entered the apartment to find her padawan off somewhere else, and the doors to both of their rooms wide open. This didn't particularity phase her, as it was not an uncommon thing for her to return to.

Her datapad being missing was cause for a spark of annoyance, but seeing as she didn't need it for anything too important, she wasn't overly irritated yet.

Conveniently, her padawan chose then to enter the apartment, giving an overly innocent smile upon seeing her normally put together master searching the apartment.

"Hi master, how's your day going?" The fourteen year old said cheerfully, closing the door behind her.

"Fairly well. It would be considerably better if I could find my datapad. I don't suppose you'd know anything about its whereabouts Lilianah?"

Lilianah scowled, giving her master an annoyed look.

"Come on. Master. How many times do I have to tell you, it's just Lilly. Seriously." The dark skinned girl complained, crossing her arms and scowling.

"Padawan. My datapad."

Lilly sighed, and went in to her room.

"I dunno, I think I left it somewhere in here… hm… Oh, found it! It was in my blankets!" She announced triumphantly, returning to the main area and handing her master said pilfered datapad.

"Thank you. I don't suppose you're planning on hanging around this afternoon at all?" Keira asked, brushing a lock of her extremely short golden blonde hair back.

"Yeah, if you don't mind?"

"Of course not, Lilianah- sorry, Lilly, I do actually enjoy spending time with you."

"I like spending time with you too you big sap. If you're not busy right now, you mind helping me with my hair? The buns got kinda messed up when I was sparring…"

"Alright, sit down on the couch. Honestly, I don't know why you wear it the way you do, you can barely do your own hair when you have to." Keira said, sitting down behind her and letting out the teenagers four buns of pink hair.

"I like it! It looks like a butterfly, and butterfly hair matches my aesthetic. Besides, when I get knighted, it'll be the same length as the hair in my braid, and that always looks much nicer."

"Kids today are strange." The master sighed with a hint of teasing in her voice, carefully forming the first of the upper buns.

" _You're_ strange."

* * *

Tor walked on his usual patrol through the temple, his rounds carrying him through the halls.

Most Jedi would probably be bored with just walking the halls every day for a few hours alone, but Tor enjoyed the solitude and time for quiet reflection. And besides, his duty as a temple guardian was something he took pride in, enjoying being able to spend most of his time in quiet contemplation, while still defending his home, and his massive family of fellow Jedi inside it.

Things had become tense after the beginning of the clone wars, but this only meant that temple guards were sent on less missions, and their scenarios of defending the temple began to be aimed more at stopping an outright siege, potentially from Sith.

But Tor took it all in stride, and continued to serve his duty while learning the drills and tactics as quickly as possible.

Anything to keep the temple safe.

* * *

Micah completed a particularly tricky flip, vaulting cleanly over Xarieks head, and aiming a strong blow at her unguarded back from mid-air. Despite this, Xariek was quicker, neatly dodging the lightsaber strike. Micah stumbled briefly on her landing, which prompted Xariek to kick out, and knock the other girls legs out from under her, following through with a lightsaber aimed to the throat.

"I will never understand how you're so good at this." Micah complained after the lightsaber was moved, taking the hand up that Xariek offered.

"It's cause I'm amazing. Also I spend so much time working on my lightsaber forms that I think I might as well live here by now." She said cheerfully, pulling Micah up, and then absently straightening out her short, bleached undercut.

Micah rolled her eyes, grinning good-naturedly.

"What is with you and your hair?"

"Hey man, I gotta look good. 'Sides, this is low maintenance, I just need to trim it sometimes, shave the side again, and touch up the roots. Worth it to look this awesome. Also, I have to have an undercut with the colour altered somehow, how else are people going to know I'm a lesbian? I can't start wearing flannel everywhere, that's gotten taken over by the straights." Xariek said jokingly, grinning cheerfully.

"Oh my god, we're the worst Jedi ever." The darker skinned woman sighed, covering her face with her hands.

"Oh, don't be so uptight Micah, we're awesome. Wanna go another round?"

"Eh, let's take five and get some water first." The more sedate knight replied, tucking some of her curly black hair behind her ear, and heading for a bench. Her companion shrugged, and followed.

"Works for me. Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I fought Ventress? Because that's absolutely a thing that happened and it was amazing"

* * *

Aaron sat at a terminal in the archives, going through research in an attempt to write an acceptable paper to turn in for his Republic Law class.

Normally this would a fairly easy task for the studious young man. He was reaching the latter stages of his apprenticeship, and the eighteen year old was fairly certain that a knighthood was in his future within the year. And normally, his academic classes weren't much of a struggle for him at all.

However, in the last three years it had become very apparent that spending the majority of your time off fighting a war did terrible, terrible things to your studies. Namely, they took a backseat to other priorities. Like staying alive, and training more so that he could stay alive.

But now Aaron and his master were on leave, so Aaron's focus had switched back to his academic work, and then stayed on it because dear _Force_ was he ever behind. On everything.

It really wasn't his fault he was so behind, and his teachers clearly understood that, several of them having sent him messages boiling down to 'Turn in your late work whenever you can.' He wasn't about to use their lenience to betray them and take time off, so here he was. Working away at an essay.

"This had better get me some good karma or something." The teenager muttered under his breath, typing out another few lines about the intricacies inherent in the Republic's legal system.

* * *

"Hey Rina. Glad you decided to show up some time today!" One of the healers called, a laugh in his voice.

"Y'know what man, you can fight me, let's go!" She called back with a grin, washing her hands in the sink as she got ready for her shift in the Halls of Healing.

"Yeah, yeah. Your charts are on your datapad, like always. Have fun with your first patient, she's a riot let me tell you." He replied, pulling a face that made it very clear that the first patient on Rina's rounds was going to be more then slightly uncooperative.

"Ugh. What kind of riot are we talking about here, do I have to glare her in to submission, or fist fight her back in to bed?"

"Rina no. Don't fight the patients. You're a healer. You're not supposed to do that. Don't do that."

"I'm just saying, sometimes you gotta show the patients that you're not screwing around. Punch them in the face, that always solves everything and will never cause any sort of complications ever." Rina said cheerfully, grabbing her datapad off one of the shelves.

"Anyways, have fun. You remembered that you're the senior healer on duty for today, right."

Rina fumbled, dropping the datapad on the table.

"Wait what the fuck? Seriously? God damn it, why didn't someone tell me before right now!? I would have been even later if I knew I was the boss today."

"Haha. Anyways, me and my five minutes of overtime that SOMEONE caused are leaving now. Later loser."

The other healer left the room, leaving Rina alone with her datapad. She sighed, and leaned over to pick it up again, frowning as some of her short red hair fell in front of her face.

"Damn, time for a trim soon, that's not hygienic at all," She muttered, before grabbing a hair tie out of a drawer and putting it up in a short ponytail. "Yeah, that'll do for today. Fuckin' yolo and all."

And with that noble statement truly befitting a healer of her skill, ability and current station, she left the prep room, and headed to check in on her first patient for the day.

* * *

Ji-Lien was not happy.

She was not happy for many reasons. The first reason was because she was stuck in a bed, which wasn't her own. The second reason was because she was stuck in a room that wasn't her own. The third reason was that her back was still stunningly painful, due to it having four blaster shots in it that were healing at an obnoxiously slow rate.

The fourth reason for not being happy was that she only had two pillows. Which was honestly the last straw, and an absolute outrage. Ji-Lien needed a goddamn nest of pillows with varying levels of size and softness before she could comfortable sleep, and two identical pillows did not meet that requirement. At all.

A fifth reason decided to enter the room, in the form of a healer with tanned skin, and short, dark red hair tied up in what would have to be the worst attempt at a ponytail Ji-Lien had ever seen in her life.

"That is the worst attempt at a ponytail I've seen in my life." She said, proving to the world that her brain-to-mouth filters were questionable at best.

"You're no painting." The healer shot back, clearly not appreciating the jab at her hairdressing skills.

"Of course I'm not, I'm stuck in a goddamn bed wearing a goddamn dress because I couldn't dodge a few goddamn blaster bolts from a goddamn droid!"

"Ohhh yeah, you're going to be an interesting one, I can tell." The redhead muttered under her breath, as she put down the datapad she was holding and got Ji-Lien to sit up on the edge of her bed, back facing the healer.

"And it's a hospital gown. Stop whining, everyone has to wear them." The healer's berating continued, as she removed said hospital gown, leaving Ji-Lien in nothing but pants and bandages.

"You don't have to wear one." The young knight grumbled, scowling at the floor while the older woman undid said bandages.

"That's because I have to deal with people like you whining every damn day. I'm allowed to upgrade to scrubs and a labcoat."

"Sure, sure. Asshole."

"You really want to keep insulting the person caring for your exposed wounds? Really? I admire your faith in my patience, really."

Ji-Lien realised that the healer made an excellent point, and decided to change tacks in the conversation. Immediately.

"So uh, who are you anyways? And where's the dude from earlier?"

"I'm Rina, and I'll be your healer for the rest of my shift. So, from now until dawn basically. Whose idea was it to have a night shift start out in the late afternoon, I mean really? Er, and the other dude clocked out for the day, he'll be back tomorrow."

"Aright, cool."

The two sat in silence for a while, with Rina cleaning out the wounds, and Ji-Lien occasionally hissing in pain. After a few minutes, bacta was re-applied on to the injuries, and a fresh set of bandages were applied. The healer helped her put the long, loose shirt back on, before getting her settled back in the bed.

"And there we go. Anything else you need?"

"Some more goddamn pillows."

Rina snorted.

"Yeah, there's a note on your chart saying that you don't need more pillows, and not to give them to you. So… sucks to suck. Enjoy the rest of your day, hit the panic button if you start dying or something!"

And with that cheerful parting line, Rina left the room, presumably moving on to the rest of her patients.

Ji-Lien continued to be not happy.

* * *

Alex was having what was simultaneously an excellent day, and a somewhat terrifying one. It was excellent, because it had been fairly quiet and peaceful. It was terrifying, because it had been fairly quiet and peaceful.

The reason it was so alarming, was because Alex was a crèche master, and if the younglings under his care were being peaceful, that was usually a sign that either something was wrong, or all hell was about to break loose.

The most worrying part was that one of his main hell-raisers was suspiciously absent. Most people would think that a small ten year old girl wouldn't be able to single-handedly run circles around several crèche masters that wanted to keep her adventurous nature directed in to constructive pursuits, but those people would be wrong.

Still, young Lin had said she was going to go hang out with one of her friends in a different part of the crèche, an area with a different master running it. She wasn't his problem for a while. Alex could relax. Really.

Somehow, telling himself this didn't help him relax at all.

His younglings were fine. Alex needed some tea.

* * *

On the other side of the temple, a young Mirialan girl slipped through the gardens, using the trees and bushes to hide her small frame from the occasional grown up that passed through. Fortunately, none of them seemed to be looking for her, so she was free to continue her explorations.

This was the best idea Lin had ever had. She was a _genius_.

And so, without any stuffy, boring masters to tell her not to do what she was doing, she continued her private adventure, blissfully unaware of the minor anxiety attack her absence was causing for her beloved crèche master.

She giggled quietly to herself. Life was awesome.

Lin was awesome.

* * *

Korin was enjoying his walk through the gardens.

He had really been away from the temple far too long, too busy out on the warfront. Fortunately, the attack on Couruscant, and subsequent losses the Seperatists had suffered meant that the clone wars were tilted firmly in the Republic's favour now, and he and his padawan were finally able to return home.

He paused briefly, stopping on the path.

There had been the faint sound of a giggle from the heavy foliage off the path, to his left.

For a second, Korin moved to go in to investigate, his battlefield instincts screaming danger. And then he remembered that he was at the peaceful temple, and that battlefield awareness was very much not necessary.

And considering that he was in one of the more secluded gardens in the temple… odds were good the source of the giggling was some padawans having a private rendezvous away from prying eyes. Force knows almost every Jedi had a small fling somewhere in their teens or early twenties. The giggling occupants of the bushes were probably some padawans doing family un-friendly activities.

Korin decided that in the case of this scenario, he was absolutely willing to stay in his fucking lane. He didn't want to know any details. Any of them. At all.

He turned, and kept walking through the gardens, pace slightly quicker than it needed to be in order to leave the area.

* * *

The temple was peaceful, the afternoon turning in to evening. None of the inhabitants inside were under any extreme distress, there was no crisis that they knew of, and all was well.

That was ready to change.

In front of the temple, the newly named Darth Vader led the 501st division up the steps of the ancient building that he had once considered a home, and was now preparing to slaughter.

He would see it burn.

* * *

 **AN: So how's that shit for an introduction?**

 **Alright, hang on to your asses, because this is going to get CRAZY. Like, I got three sentences in to Keira's part and I was like wait fuck hold on this is gonna be complicated I need to summarize it and keep this all straight, and long story short I spent a few hours planning out this story, which is weird because I usually don't do that. Like, I made a 3000 word summary just to plan this shit out.**

 **So thanks to that, I can confidently say that there will be 11 chapters and an epilogue. They just get worst, trust me. Also, much like the outline of each chapter did, I'm pretty sure the chapters are all going to get progressively longer as we keep going, so, that's something to look forward to.**

 **I'm a nice person, and I get that the dump of characters might be a little hard to keep track of. So I will be nice, and provide a quick cheat sheet for you all right here because I like my readers.**

 **So our cast is:**

 **Keira, a middle aged master with a padawan.**

 **Lilianah/Lilly, Keira's 14 year old padawan.**

 **Tor, a middle age temple guard, holds the rank of knight.**

 **Xariek, a knight in her early twenties. Excellent fighter.**

 **Micah, a knight in her early twenties. Close to Xariek, but is much calmer than her.**

 **Aaron, an 18 year old padawan, close to knighthood.**

 **Rina, a master in her forties. Fully trained healer, and begins her shift as the healer with the most seniority on duty, placing her in charge of the Halls of Healing.**

 **Ji-Lien, a knight in her mid-twenties. Recovering from several blaster bolts to the back.**

 **Alex, a crèche master. In his fifties, and very protective of his charges.**

 **Lin, a 10 year old youngling. Adventurous, and enjoys defying authority to run off and do her own thing.**

 **Korin, a knight in his early thirties. Somewhat of a rebel.**

 **And that's our squad! Now, who wants to take bets on which one dies first?**

 **Hint: It's the asshole that delayed me for HOURS BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T WANT TO FUCKING COOPERATE AND BE WRITTEN WELL. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE FUCKER.**

 **But yeah. Try not to get attatched to any of them, because they're all going to get rekt. Possibly. One of them is a canon character, and who it is will be revealed in the epilogue. So all I'm saying is that at least one character is going to live. Everyone else, who knows! Well, I do. But you don't and that's the point.**

 **Oh, and because I took the time to plan this shit all out, next chapter should be up pretty soon? Like a few days maybe, I don't know. Until then, I'm going to go make myself some pasta and go to bed, I deserve it.**

 **Reviews are always appreciated!**


	2. Heading To The Guillotine

**AN: Yooo, we are back! See, quick update, just like I promised. I'm awesome.**

* * *

Chapter 2: Heading To the Guillotine

A trio of young padawans walked up to Vader as he and the 501st marched in to the temple atrium.

"Master Skywalker? What's going o-"

The one that spoke wasn't able to finish her sentence, as her head was removed by a swing of his lightsaber. The other two suffered similar fates.

The atrium of the temple was a large, open space, and it was fairly common for friends to meet each other there. Due to it being late afternoon, there were roughly two dozen Jedi of various age and ability hanging around, who witnessed the sudden murders, and lightsabers were rapidly ignited across the room.

The clones opened fire, and Darth Vader charged in to battle.

Needless to say, it was very one sided.

* * *

Around the temple, the deaths resonated through the Force, one after the other stacking up, and causing a ripple effect.

In the training salles, Micah dropped the bottle of water she'd been holding, and stared wide-eyed in the direction the disturbance had come from, ignoring the water spilling on the ground. Beside her, Xariek stood up, eyes narrowed.

"What the hell was that?" The blonde demanded, hand dropping on to her lightsaber hilt, although not activating it yet.

"I… I don't know. It felt like people dying. Force, is the temple under attack!?" Micah said, a thread of panic in her voice.

"Not sure. We… should go find out what's going on. Immediately."

Another death rang through the Force, and both Jedi winced, the impatient Xariek taking off straight for the door.

Micah took a second to grab her long black coat, and throw it on over her dark purple shirt, before easily catching up with the other girl.

"Hey, Xar, your stuff?" She reminded, pointedly looking at the blue tank top she had stripped down to for their earlier sparring, and then looking back at her overshirt and sweater.

"Fuck it, more important things right now. I'll go back and grab it later. Come on goddammit!"

The two took off running through the halls, towards the atrium, and whatever unknown danger had chosen to show itself.

* * *

Rina's head snapped up as the familiar feeling of deaths spread through the Force. No, multiple deaths, all near the atrium. Violent ones too.

"What's going on?" The sick padawan she had been checking up on asked, sounding alarmed. Rina put on a comforting smile that she didn't quite feel.

"Don't worry, I'm sure it's nothing. I'm sorry, but I'm the senior healer in running the Halls today, I need to go coordinate with the other healers. I'll have someone else in to finish checking how you're recovering, alright?"

"O-okay…"

She left the datapad on the bedside table, and exited the room in a calm manner. The second the door closed behind her, that changed to a sprint.

That sprint slowed to a stop, as she spotted one of her patients from earlier out in the hall, the teal-haired knight named Ji-Lien. The one that had no business being out of her room, or even out of bed.

"What the fuck are you doing out of bed!? You shouldn't be on your feet for another few days, you're going to fucking tear something!" Rina yelled, grabbing on to the younger womans arms to steady her. "If you set your recovery back from this, you better fucking believe you're not getting the good shit for pain meds!"

"You can bitch about healing stuff later, it's not important right now!"

" _What the hell do you mean not important-_ "

"What's going on out there? I definitely felt deaths in the Force, are we under attack or something?"

"That was what I was going to find out before you interrupted me. You're going back to bed, and I'll make sure answers get to you once we have them, okay?"

"But-"

"YOU HAVE GAPING WOUNDS IN YOUR BACK STILL, BEDREST IS NOT DEBATABLE!"

"Sith fucking hell, okay, I'll go! Shit!"

Rina manhandled the younger Jedi in to a bed, and promptly left for the front again, cursing under her breath as she breezed in to the room, coat swirling dramatically behind her.

Apparently there was nothing quite like a crisis to bless you with a badass walk and an air of authority, as every head in the room snapped to her as she walked in, and more than a few younger healers immediately straightened their posture. She'd have to find out how to do that again some time when it wasn't a crisis, and she could savour the reactions.

As it was, she just launched in to talking.

"What's going on, who's got information. One at a time, go." Rina ordered, voice carrying to the whole room.

"Not sure. There were a bunch of deaths near the atrium, and now they're happening at a more paced rate. No official reports yet."

"Should some of us go down there, help any wounded?"

"No, that's a bad idea. We'd just end up being more victims in whatever massacre is happening down there. We need to stay put, we're more use alive."

"But isn't it our duty as healers to risk personal injury or death for the chance to help others?"

"And it's our duty as Jedi to be objective, and see the best path through things. You can't let your emotions cloud on this."

"So, we don't have official reports coming in yet, and the council hasn't mobilized to take care of the threat. Some of you want to send a group down to assist potential wounded, some of you want to stay put, and the rest are unsure. Am I understanding this?" Rina cut in, looking around. The healers around her nodded.

"Okay, we'll put it to a vote. Option one, we stay put until the situation increases further, or more information becomes available. In that case, we go on stand-by for a lockdown, and have a fair amount of us guarding by the front. Option two, we send a group of volunteers down to assist any wounded, and find out what's going on. We still go on stand-by for a lockdown, and that group of volunteers will go with the full knowledge that if we discover the incident is severe, we will call a lockdown, and the group will be trapped outside. Show of hands for staying put."

Several hands raised throughout the group of healers. Rina nodded, getting the count in her head.

"Hands up for sending a group."

The majority of hands shot in the air.

"Okay, I want six in the group to go, and a seventh to stay here and be in constant comm communications with them, understood?"

The group quickly assembled themselves and left, with the seventh sitting down in a waiting chair, comm in hand.

"Alright, everyone else, we are standing by for lock-down. Knights, Masters, I want you up here for defense if something comes at us. Apprentices, you're taking over the rounds. Go people!"

The apprentices paused for a few parting words with their masters, before heading deeper in to the Halls of Healing at brisk paces. In the main lobby, various Jedi settled themselves across furniture and on the floor, although a few remained standing and pacing.

Rina took a seat behind the main desk, and settled in for a tense wait, fingers drumming nervously on her leg where nobody could see.

* * *

Aaron looked up from his terminal, eyes wide in shock as the deaths sounded off through the Force.

Apparently leave time was over.

He saved his essay and work and what not, and quickly logged out of the computer, exiting the Archives at a quick pace, and heading for the apartment nearby that he shared with his master, and hoping the older man was in.

Aaron wasn't quite sensitive enough to the Force to be able to pinpoint exactly where the deaths were coming from, and he knew that he wasn't nearly strong enough to take on whatever was causing them alone. His best bet would be to find his master, or to get as far away from the attacks as possible. Fortunately, he could feel enough to be able to tell that the source of the deaths were behind him, and he was moving away.

Aaron continued to beat his hasty retreat. His hasty, _tactical_ retreat.

* * *

Tor froze on his patrol route, the unmistakable feelings of death sweeping through the Force, a threatening darkness making itself known near the front of the temple.

His drills and training kicked in without a second thought, and he was moving towards the main atrium before he was even aware of it, lightsaber hilt in hand. He was ready to defend his temple, his home, his family.

He and his fellow guards would engage the threat, and destroy it, protecting the light and all who lived in it.

And if they could not do that, they would die trying.

Tor was not afraid of the thought. After all, there was no death. There was only the Force.

* * *

 **AN: And multiple characters converge on the atrium – more specifically, on Vader and 501** **st** **. Who will die first? It's a mystery!**

 **The betting pools open until next chapter goes up if anyone wants to get in on this. Who dies next? Vote now on your phones!**

 **And then vote so hard the temple catches fire and burns down. That's how it really happened. Fanfiction over, goodnight everybody.**

 **Ok so super quick headcanon drop here. I am sure that many of you have stopped and squinted and gone 'hold the fuck up, why are there so many blatantly unnatural hair colours and weird styles here?'**

 **Well. It's flat out stated quite often during The Clone Wars show that Jedi's standards are slipping a bit, and things are starting to come undone at the seams. My opinion is, a side effect of this would be the temple gaining a more liberal attitude towards internal policies and whatnot. So, in TPM, the standard is an Obi-Wan type Jedi, following the code, being calm, polite, and respecting orders. But come RoTS, the standards are more of a Qui-Gon type Jedi, loosely follow the code, trust in the Force, and do whatever the fuck you think is best.**

 **Part of this includes that dress code standards… just sort of stop being followed. I mean, in TPM, Obi-Wan takes Anakin as a Padawan, and literally in the day has the dumb haircut, and the Jedi clothes, like, they did not waste time getting that kid dressed to standard. Come Clone Wars… well just look at what Ahsoka spent the entire series wearing without a single Jedi suggesting she should go more traditional, less flashy.**

 **So my headcanon is that in the pre-Clone Wars time, the regulation style was Padawans had the traditional haircut and braid, and knights and masters were expected to stay low maintenance. Come Clone Wars, regulation style is the padawan should have their braid. Done.**

 **This loosening of standards was met with hair dye becoming extremely popular, especially amongst younger temple inhabitants.**

 **So out of our characters, we've got 6 that qualify as young, Lilly, Xariek, Micah, Aaron, Ji-Lien, and Lin. Obviously, Lin is too young to get her hands on hair dye, so forget her. Aaron is a very private and reserved dude, so he wouldn't do something to make himself stand out. Also, he stays shaved. If you are also obsessed with Hamilton, you already know exactly what he looks like. If you have a life, then just google Leslie Odom Jr. because that is the guy that I am talking about. The padawan braid is the only hair he bothers keeping, and he's planning to shave it off after he's knighted. Micah also hasn't dyed her hair, because she's got very dark hair, and doesn't want to deal with the hassle of hair dye and bleach and whatnot. Besides, she's the sneaky bastard in any team she's on. It's her job to hang back, and find a way to destroy the enemy from the inside without them ever seeing her, she'd much rather keep a style that's unremarkable.**

 **Lilly, Xariek and Ji-Lien all have their hair coloured, and have styles that requires some maintenance to keep looking good. Lilly has hers dyed a rosey pink, and she wears it made up in four buns, two at the top of her head, two at the bottom, in a way that looks kind of like a butterflies wings, and of course her padawan braid. Yeah, it's overcomplicated and a little tacky. But she's a very excitable fourteen year old, and Keira is willing to indulge her. She's capable of handling the style on her own, but just enjoys the feeling of someone else doing it for her.**

 **Xariek's hair is naturally a plain brown, but she's bleached it out completely, to make it an obviously fake blonde. It's also been shaved, in that way so that only half of her head has hair? Y'know that punk look. Xariek is a punk. It suits her, as she's usually the in-field tactician of a group. She gets in the middle of the battlefield, she fights, and she leads. She's a very hands on person, and her style is practical, but also expresses her in the way she wants, which is important to her.**

 **And finally, Ji-Lien, shockingly enough, is whatever the Star Wars equivalent to a human Chinese person is. So her hair, while naturally black, has been bleached and dyed teal, because that's the sort of person she is. It's also extremely long, but she keeps it out of her face in combat situations with some surprisingly intricate yet practical braids, or just pulling it in to a ponytail if she's in a hurry. She keeps it long on purpose, mostly just because she knows that anyone who tries to grab her hair in a fight is in for an unpleasant surprise. Namely, a lightsaber to the face. Don't get close to Jedi in a fight kids. But as of the story, she's in the Halls of Healing, recovering from some nasty injuries, so she's just wearing it loose, as lying down on braids/ponytails is super uncomfortable, and she doesn't really care enough to braid it just to lie in bed all day. Will this fuck her over in the end? Who knows!**

 **The rest of the Jedi wear their hair in nice, normal styles, keeping whatever hair colour they naturally have, in whatever style is best for their work. The craziest is Rina, just because hers is naturally a pretty surprising shade of red, and has gotten a bit longer than is practical for Healers work.**

 **I just went on a multi-paragraph rant about my characters goddamn hair styles and the motives behind them. Fuck me gently with a chainsaw I am a fucking nerd. I also dye my hair, believe it or not. I know, shocking, nobody could tell. Bright red bitches.**


	3. Bodies Hit the Floor

**AN: So, uh to Anna Taure who reviewed on anon, buddy pal chum friend amigo homedog I've got some unfortunate news about that prediction of yours. I mean, Tor is the correct answer to a question I've been posing… just not the one you thought it was. Ripironi.**

 **And that's not ominous at ALL. Back to story time!**

 **Also I figured out the fuckin review thing turns out I accidentally made myself moderate reviews for whatever reason so that was bullshit and I've fixed it now. Huzzah.**

 **Oh and this chapter is where the dead Jedi start being shown in a detailed scene, so if you are adverse to descriptions of murdered people, this is where you wanna start treading lightly.**

 **Also, just a heads up, any lines that are completely italicized are lines that are being said through a comlink, or an intercom or something like that.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 3: Bodies Hit the Floor

Tor ran in to the atrium, boots skidding to a stop in the entrance.

The atrium had been the sight of a slaughter, over a dozen bodies lying on the ground, some with blaster wounds, and others clearly having been killed with a lightsaber. The reason that Tor had stopped was because the dead body of a padawan had been thrown out in his path, the teenager's eyes wide and unseeing, and a lightsaber slash across their torso.

In the center of the carnage, a man in a cloak stood, hood obscuring his features. Clone troopers were standing at attention around him.

Upon Tor's arrival, the clones raised their blasters, aiming for him. The man turned, and ignited his lightsaber, the blue blade at odds with the darkness rolling off of him.

 _Sith Lord_ a part of his mind whispered.

Tor ignited his lightsaber, the yellow blade extending, and charged the fallen Jedi, opening with a heavy sideslash intended to break any guard he put up.

So it was some surprise when the blow was easily deflected by his foe, and Tor was the one stepping back.

The Sith was strong. Tor was going to try a different approach than brute force.

He fell in to an opening stance of Makashi, and gave a salute, silently daring the Sith to attack.

And attack the Sith did, launching at Tor with frightening speed, falling upon him with rapid, heavy blows that he was barely able to deflect.

Under his Temple Guardian mask, Tor grimaced, not liking the path the battle was taking as he was steadily driven backwards, the blasters aimed at him serving as a clear sign that even if he was to win against the Sith, his odds of survival were considerably lower than he would like.

The Sith slammed down a particularly heavy blow, his lightsaber locking against Tor's. The two both strained, attempting to break the blade lock first, and knock the other off guard.

Their standoff caused Tor to be able to see under the Sith's hood for the first time, a surprisingly youthful face set in a cold glare, unnatural gold eyes giving the man a disturbing look.

His face seemed familiar to Tor, like someone that he had seen before, and often.

And here he had thought that being terrible at matching names to faces wouldn't end up fucking him over.

In the silent blade lock, Tor's arms shook slightly, and his lightsaber was pushed back a centimeter. The Sith narrowed his eyes, seeing the opportunity, and pushed harder, pulling extra strength from the Force.

And that was all it took.

Tor was knocked off balance, staggering backwards from the strength of the blow. The Sith took the opening, sinking his lightsaber up to the hilt in Tor's stomach, before giving him a powerful Force push for good measure, sending him flying back down the hall he'd entered from, and slamming in to a wall.

His world shrank in to nothing but a burst of _pain_ , before everything went dark.

* * *

" _We're approaching the atrium now."_ One of the healers reported through a comlink.

Immediately, the others around the room all straightened up, attention turning to the com held by the healer behind the desk.

" _Hang on- Shit, is that dead body?"_

" _No, shit, hang on, he's still alive!"_

" _We've found an injured temple guard, we're moving him to a safer place, and we're gonna try to bring him around."_

Rina got up, and moved over to the desk, taking the comlink from the healer that had it earlier.

"Good. Find out what happened." She said, effectively commandeering it for herself.

The healer that had had it before rolled their eyes, scowling.

"Well if you were just going to take it, why the hell did I have the comm at all?" They grumbled, looking pissed.

Rina gave them an irritated look in return.

"The situation escalated. You got a problem, you run the ward." She replied, raising an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Fair enough. Carry on."

* * *

Tor woke up to a gentle hand on his cheek, his mask having been removed. He opened his eyes, and the world swam in to focus to show a Togruta healer leaning over him, worry clear on the man's face.

"He's awake! Can you tell us your name? Are you coherent?"

Tor realized that he didn't feel pain from his injuries, which had to have been numerous. A glance down at his body revealed that he was indeed severely injured, a fact which was made obvious by the three other healers working on the injuries, the faint glow of light around their hands making it clear that they were pouring healing energy in to him, attempting to fix his wounds.

It didn't appear to be working.

He was okay with that fact.

There was no death. There was only the Force.

"-ey? Hey! Stay with me, come on!" The Togruta scolded, hitting his face gently.

"Tor. My name is Tor." He rasped out. He felt his broken ribs grate together, in a way that was probably supposed to be painful, but was only mildly uncomfortable due to healers work.

"Okay. I need you to tell me what happened Tor. Who did this to you?"

He coughed harshly, blood filling his mouth.

"We're losing him." One of the healers reported tersely, face pinched with strain as she continued her futile attempt to heal him.

"Tor, I need this information right now."

"Si-Sith… Sith lord… with the clones… betrayed… us… He… former Jedi…" He choked out, darkness creeping around the edge of his vision.

"Alright. We'll pass on the knowledge Tor." The Togruta said gently, running a comforting hand through his hair.

"The- the temple…"

"That information's what we need. You've done your duty, don't worry." The Togruta soothed, as the darkness around Tor's vision continued to creep in.

The last thing he heard was the man telling the other healers to let him pass on, as his vision faded away completely.

And then there was nothing but the Force.

* * *

" _The guard we found died. He was able to pass on that we're under attack by… Force, we're under attack by a fallen Jedi, leading a battalion of clones. We've been betrayed."_ One of the healers in the group reported, voice grim.

"Shit fuck god damn it. Alright, I need full honesty here. Are you completely certain you can make it back without any delay, or before any potential attacks reach us up here?" Rina said, voice even. Around her, several other healers swore quietly, one getting up to pace anxiously, biting their lip.

" _I-Fuck. No, I don't think that's possible. Call the lockdown, we'll be alright."_ The healer from before said quietly, voice shaking slightly.

"Alright. Good luck." Rina said solemnly.

" _We'll be fine. Don't worry."_ The healer repeated, fear laced in their voice clearly proving that he didn't quite believe himself.

"Understood. Ending communications."

Rina turned off the comm, putting it down on the table.

Around her, a room full of grim and frightened faces stared at her.

"Are- are we seriously going to lock them out!?" One of the younger healers demanded, face pale with fear.

"No. I'm going to. I'm in charge, this decision is on me. Nobody else." Rina said firmly, going to the desk, and typing in commands on the console sitting on top of it.

The glass doors were covered by heavy durasteel plates, the lockdown initiated. She took a deep breath, found her balance, and stood back up.

"Alright. We're healers, not saints. One of you has bound to have dabbled in questionable things. I am going to leave the room now. I don't care who does it, and I don't want to know who does it, but I want someone to slice in to the Temple systems, and broadcast the information about the Sith. Understood?"

Rina was promptly met with a roomful of people shuffling, muttering, and avoiding her gaze.

"Just get it done."

And she turned and left the room, hearing the distinct sound of multiple people all going for the computer at the same time.

* * *

Alex jumped as the intercom turned on with a shriek. Several younglings yelped as well, alarmed at the sudden loud noise.

" _Shit- sorry, hang on, I got this."_ A muffled voice said, sounding scrambled. There was another shriek of interference.

" _O-Okay, here we go, that's better. Okay. We got this."_ The voice said, now much clearer.

" _Oookay. So. A lot of us have probably felt those deaths happening in the temple. The uh… you're not going to like this…"_

" _Get to the point!"_ Someone scolded in the background of the broadcast.

" _Right, right. The cause of the deaths was a sith lord, leading a battalion of clones. It's unknown why they have betrayed us, or what their true intentions are, but they have yet to use anything except lethal force. So… that's a thing. I'm not here to tell you what to do, so, draw your own conclusions from that."_ The first person reported, sounding very done with the situation.

Alex's heart gave an unpleasant lurch, anxiety and fear making an unpleasant mixture of emotions.

Suddenly, the still on intercom made more indiscriminate noises, the yells in the background making it sound like somebody was wrestling for the mic.

" _And hey, sith dude, we know you can hear this! WE'RE GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!"_ A new voice roared, the sound of cheering in the background.

Alex exchanged glances with one of the other crèche masters in the room, eyebrows raising in slight disbelief. More scuffling sounds came from the intercom.

" _OKAY, ENDING THE BROADCAST NOW ALSO DON'T GO TO THE ATRIUM BECAUSE THE SITH IS THERE OKAY BYE."_ The first speaker yelled, before the broadcast cut out again.

"What… just happened." The other crèche master said, blinking in vague disbelief.

"Well, it's good to know that every single youngling just learned how to swear." Someone else deadpanned.

"Enough jokes, we need to act. Go trigger the lockdown." Alex ordered, pointing at one of the other masters, who nodded, and left to do just that.

"I should go check on my clan." The other one said, before leaving Alex alone with his clan of younglings.

"Okay. Everyone here?" He called, making his voice sound calm, and turning to look at the children.

"U-uh, Lin's not here."

Alex paused, panic lancing through him, before he relaxed again.

"That's fine, Lin's with another group in the crèche. She'll be alright there."

* * *

"A sith. An actual sith is attacking the actual temple." Lilianah said, her voice taunt with fear. Keira put a calming hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry padawan. There's thousands of Jedi here, the Sith won't be any match for us."

"But what if-"

"Have faith. The Force will see us through this. I'm going to go and defend the temple, you stay here, alright?"

Lilianah recoiled at this, before her face twisted in outrage.

"What!? Master, I'm a Jedi too, let me fight! I'm your padawan, my place is at your side!" She yelped, hands curled in to fists.

"No. Your place is where I say it is. And right now, I say your place is here. In safety."

"But-"

"Lilianah. You are my padawan. It is my primary responsibility to protect you. And right now, the only way I can be sure to keep you safe is to keep you out of this mess. Are we understood?" Keira said sternly, giving her young charge a warning look. Lilly wilted under the stare, scowling at the ground.

"Yes master…" The teenager grumbled reluctantly.

"I'll be back soon. May the Force be with you my padawan."

"…You too master. Come back okay."

Keira gave Lilly one last smile, before leaving their apartment, the door locking shut behind her. Now alone, Lilly took a deep, shuddering breath.

"She'll be fine. She's my master, she's always fine." She muttered to herself, before sighing, and turning to go in to her bedroom.

Keira would be fine.

She had to be.

* * *

Micah and Xariek skidded to a stop, looking at each other.

"Holy shit. What the fuck. And actual sith lord is attacking the temple, and the clones are helping him and Micah WHAT THE FUCK!?" Xariek yelled, eyes wide with alarm. Micah bit her lip in response.

"Okay. So cancel going to the atrium to investigate." She muttered, bouncing on her feet and looking nervous.

"Well- fucks sake, we still have to do something, our home is under attack here!"

"I know, I'm thinking! Uh… Hey. We're both generals. Experienced ones too. Someone… someone needs to take control of this whole mess, right? Information can't just be broadcast out, because the invaders will hear everything, and make it useless. So, there needs to be a better way to co-ordinate."

"…What are you saying." Xariek said slowly, tilting her head slightly.

"You… you're still crazy good at slicing in to systems, right?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about as that is illegal and not allowed in any way shape or form. But I may or may not have some knowledge of the art."

"Good. You head to the main communications relay, you can slice in to it with the abilities you absolutely don't have, and access the comlinks of everybody in the temple. And I can head to the main security room, and work as your eyes through the video feeds. We could call the defense of the entire temple from the perfect perspective!" Micah said, eyes lighting up with hope. Xariek grinned, a devious look in her eyes.

"Slice in to the temple. Yeah, I can do that. Won't even be _hard_ really, especially since I've been messing around in the temple systems for like, years now… I mean what."

"Right. Let's go then." Micah said decisively, turning around to leave.

She was stopped by Xariek grabbing her wrist, and holding on.

"Just… be safe?" The blonde said quietly, in a rare moment of vulnerability. Micah gave a soft smile in return.

"Hey, you know me, I'm always okay. You be careful too, alright? No stupid risks."

"No stupid risks this time." Xariek repeated, still looking concerned over the other girl.

"Don't worry. The Force will keep us together, I'm sure of it." Micah said firmly.

Xariek's mouth twitched in a faint smile, before she impulsively leaned in, pressing a kiss against Micah's lips. She returned it briefly, before breaking away.

"C'mon Xar. You know we shouldn't do that in public, we're Jedi." Micah scolded gently, although there was clear love in her eyes.

"I know. It was- It was just in case. Y'know?"

"…Yeah, I get it. Be careful."

"Always, love."

* * *

 **AN: HAHAHAHA THEY'RE LESBIANS MY JEDI CHILDREN ARE LESBIANS THEY'RE THE BIGGEST LESBIANS EVER AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME!**

 **I really don't know what anyone expected, with the sort of username I've got.**

 **So… yeah.**

 **Rest in peace dear Tor. We barely knew thee, and yet every single one of your scenes except for your death was annoyingly difficult to write. You goddamn stoic.**

 **Next chapter should come a bit sooner, as my main roadblock is now disposed of. I mean don't get me wrong I loved him but god damn he did not like me getting inside his head, I mean shit son.**

 **Also, next chapter is when things get intense (again), and when we see a group that should look a little bit familiar. I'm not talking about our one canon character, as they're main cast, and survive the prequel trilogy. This is just a handful of throwaways from one of the movies that I decided deserved a bit of an explanation for.**

… **Have fun mulling over THAT bit of fucking nonsense for a while.**

 **And seriously reviews are like actually my main motivation. I don't care if you leave the weirdest shit ever, I'm still excited to get it. Mind you, I might send you a message asking you what the fuck, but I will still be very happy.**

 **Review you nerds.**


	4. First One Up

**AN: Okay so maybe I'm having entirely too much fun just fucking with an entire cast of characters, because this chapter was really fun to write.**

 **Oh, and some minor context, aka a scene I meant to put in last chapter but forgot and wouldn't make sense if I put it in now, after the fact that a sith lord was attacking with the 501** **st** **, Vader ordered his men to advance in to the temple, as secrecy was now pretty much blown. So there are squads of clones advancing through the temple, and Vader going on his own as a rogue plot device I can throw in anytime things start looking too hopeful. And I'm comfortable enough with myself and my writing abilities to admit to that fact.**

 **Cause I mean clones are badass and all but this is literally the goddamn Jedi Temple these defenses will not be broken by nothing but a bunch of normal. Actually tbh the whole siege probably would have gone tits up if Vader hadn't been leading the siege, or if the clones hadn't been around to back him up, and keep him from just getting charged by literally every fucking Jedi in the temple at the same time. And I definitely didn't just write that sentence only because I wanted to use the phrase 'gone tits up'. Don't judge me god damn it.**

 **Also fun anecdote, when I was writing this chapter I got to a part in my layout that included a line about Alex going to help out Xariek and I swear to god I spent a solid ten minutes just staring and going "What the fuck? Alex is the main narrator for the entire crèche arc why the fuck did I put him leaving it what the hell!? I don't even have any other narrators going over there until like chapter 9 why the hell would I set two of my narrators on the same plot thread and abandon a different one!?" and then I remembered that in the first stages of planning, the crèche master was a woman named Seha, and the man named Alex was a random master somewhere else in the temple. Then I realized that I had one too many characters to be doing stuff in the plot lines, so I was like fuck it, bye Seha, Alex can have your job, and I guess I forgot to take that out of the planning for this chapter. So that's fun.**

 **Don't write from obsolete plans at 2 AM kids.**

 **Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 4: First One Up

Lin carefully peeped out of a bush, looking up and down the path to check if it was safe.

She couldn't tell what was happening, or why, but the Force had gotten scary, and the little girl was smart enough to be able to tell that something was very, very wrong. Her little adventure had become way less fun suddenly.

It was time for her to get back to the crèche. Immediately.

Seeing nobody, she slipped out of the bush, and started running along the path towards the exit of the gardens. She was making good pace, until she rounded the corner, and slammed in to somebody, getting knocked to the floor with a yelp of surprise and pain.

"Oh, Force! I didn't see you, are alright little one?"

The person she had knocked in to was a man, a tall one too. She couldn't tell if he was a knight or a master, but he was clearly an adult. And Lin really needed one of those right now.

"Yeah, I'm okay… I need to get back to the crèche, something's wrong in the Force and I don't know what's happening, do you?"

The man's expressing froze slightly, eyes darting to the side. He very obviously knew what was going on, and didn't want to tell Lin.

"That's… Uh… Y'know what, I'll help you get back, how does that sound. Okay? Okay. Let's go."

He helped her up, and the two continued down the path, before rounding the corner to find a small group of clone troopers.

Lin perked up, eyes bright at the sight of the Jedi's allies. The man flinched in surprise, shoving Lin behind him.

"Hey, what's going-"

The troops fired at the pair, and Lin screamed in surprise, dropping to the ground behind the man and covering her ears. After a minute or so, the shooting stopped, and the man gently helped her sit up.

"Wha- what…"

"The clones have turned on us for some reason. They're attacking them temple. Uh, that's why the Force is upset right now. I'm gonna help you get back to the crèche, okay? Oh, also, my name's Korin."

She noticed that he was using his robes and body to block her sight of the rest of the path, specifically where the clones had been. She was very glad about this fact.

"O-okay. I'm Lin."

"Nice to meet you. Alright, we're gonna get moving now. Uh… don't look until I tell you to."

She obligingly covered her eyes with her hands, and Korin picked her up, quickly carrying her a ways down the path, before putting her back down.

"Okay, you can look now. Uh, you're a little big to carry the whole way, so you're going to have to run for as long as you can, okay?"

"Yeah, I can do that. I'm a good runner."

"Excellent. Let's get moving."

* * *

Micah settled herself down in the chair of the security room, the sturdily locked door doing wonders to make her feel safe.

"Oookay, let's see what we're working with here…" She muttered, turning on the monitors, and tapping in the password to access the camera feeds. Said password may or may not have been acquired through some questionably legal means, but that was neither here nor there.

The screens around her lit up, displaying footage from all over the temple, and she grinned, the expression taking on a slightly predatory look as she surveyed the new wealth of information available to her.

"Ohhh yes. I can work with this. I can work with this just fine." She said, indulging in a small victory spin of her swivel chair.

" _Hey. You getting held up by something, or did you geek out over the setup again?"_ Xariek snarked from the commlink.

"Shut up. And yeah, I'm here. And the setup is _sweet,_ I've got eyes all over. This is the best."

" _Nice you fucking nerd. Okay, I'm at the main comm relay for the temple so… I'm gonna need like, five minutes here to take over the systems. Evaluate the situation and have an overview for me when I'm done. And try to find that sith!"_

"Can do. Enjoy your slicing."

" _Oh, I will."_

She set her comm down on the desk in front of her, before getting to work, flipping through screens, and muttering vaguely to herself, formulating a report for her partner. This wasn't the first time she'd been acting as the eyes for an operation, and by now the motions had become familiar.

Something on one of the screens caught her eye, and she manipulated it to increase the size, cursing quietly to herself.

The Sith was on the screen fighting a trio of what looked to be knights. And the battle was not going well for the three.

"Holy fuck." Micah muttered to herself, nervously chewing on her thumbnail as she watched the fight, using her free hand to adjust the camera to follow the heated battle.

One of the knights took a lightsaber graze to the side, and fell back, slumping against a wall, and holding his side in pain. The other two stepped up their pace, working together to capture all of the sith's attention, a thing which the injured man used. He locked blades with one of the knights, and the injured one gave him a strong Force push, sending him flying down the hall, and out of camera range.

The two non-injured knights approached warily, lightsabers held at the ready.

"Just stab him already!" Micah muttered, drumming her fingers anxiously against the desk.

The advance of the knights was stopped by them both being lifted in to the air, their hands grabbing at their throats in panic.

Micah adjusted the camera again to see where the Sith was, and swore loudly, recoiling in shock. Said recoil probably wasn't the best idea, as it tipped over her chair and sent her toppling to the ground with another curse. The fall didn't phase her much compared to what she had seen, and she quickly scrambled to her feet, not bothering to right the chair as she took another look at the camera, eyes wide with horror.

The sith was on his feet, hand outstretched, and strangling the two knights through the Force, both of them helpless in the face of his power.

And the Sith's hood had been knocked off from the force push.

And Micah recognized him.

She recognized him very easily.

"Force help us all…" She breathed out, shaking her head slightly in a desperate attempt to deny what was in front of her eyes, even as she watched him snap the necks of the two knights, and advance on the injured one.

" _Okay, I'm in to the comm system. Give me something good babe."_ Xariek said through the comm, sounding satisfied with herself. Micah picked up her comm with a shaking hand, bringing it up to her mouth.

"I found the Sith."

" _Nice! Where is he, I'm just gonna flip to an open frequency to all comms inside the temple, and start coordinating this shit… Oh, sick, registry says Skywalkers on the temple grounds, that gives us a fighting chance. Should I even bother pretending that anyone else is gonna deal with this, or should we just accept that he's always going to be pulling heroic shit no matter what, and send him after the Sith?"_

"A-about that… I- I also found Skywalker."

" _Micah, what's wrong?"_ Xariek asked, concern and worry leaking in to her voice.

"Anakin Skywalker is the Sith."

There was a very long pause.

" _Oh. Well fuck."_

* * *

Ji-Lien carefully stood up, minding her injured back as she got out of her hospital bed. Again.

Normally, she probably would have listened to Rina's earlier orders to get the fuck back in bed and stay there, but she had followed those orders after being promised a full explanation. And god damn it, she had heard the broadcast earlier like everybody else, and there was still. No. Explanation.

So technically, no orders were being disobeyed. Ji-Lien was the epitome of honesty and rule following.

Yeah, believe that shit.

As she was about to make a calculated hobble towards the door, her commlink beeped on the bedside table, prompting her to turn and blink. Who the fuck was calling her now?

" _-Just connect this, and- Oh, here we go! Hello, Jedi temple! Okay. So, we all heard the earlier broadcast, and are aware that shit is going down. Hardcore. Well, luckily for us, like everybody in this temple is an experienced general, myself included. I'm patched in to every single Jedi comm in the temple right now, or, y'know, most of them. One of them has been dropped, on account of the man in question being the problem we are organizing to defeat."_

" _I'm talking, of course, about that Sith motherfucker that is encroaching upon our turf at this moment. He is a motherfucker. A fucker of mothers. Also, while we have been unable to discover what name he is using at the current moment, my source – and by that I mean my partner that's holed up in a room with all the security cam footage – has confirmed that the Sith attacking the temple and trying to kill us all is… there's really no way to sugarcoat it, he's Anakin Skywalker. Just gonna rip that bandage off right now. To avoid emotional hang ups, from here on in, unless we discover what name he is going by now, we will all refer to him as Skyfucker. Because he's being a fucker. Apologies to any children listening to this. Welcome to the real world."_

" _So, my name's Xariek, and I suppose I will be your general in command until we kick these fucks out of our home. To avoid information overload, I will be contacting separate groups and areas at a time. There is a possibility that Skyfucker will figure out that we're using the camera's to spy on him and his men, and in that case, you're all going to have to become my eyes, and the networks going to get awfully crowded if everyone's doing that. So, before things get crazy, if the various areas of the temple could just decide on who's in charge, and then that boss person could comm me, that would be great. Standing by for response."_

Ji-Lien stared at her comm for a minute, blinking in surprise. So, she was getting her information on that matter after all.

And that information was not good.

She bit her lip absently, sitting back down on the bed as she thought.

If the temple was under attack, the crèche and Halls of Healing would lock down immediately, to block off any attackers from the most vulnerable residents. Then, any capable, able-bodied Jedi inside would defend the locations in question.

Ji-Lien, while certainly capable, probably didn't qualify as abled at the moment. Which, frankly, wasn't her god damn problem.

"Pain is only my body telling me that something is damaged. If I already know this, there is no reason for pain to stop me." She said quietly to herself, before taking a deep breath, holding it, and slowly letting it out, releasing her pain in to the Force as she did so. Injuries handled for now, she fluidly stood up.

She grabbed her lightsaber off of the table, and slipped her comm in to her pocket, pursing her lips in annoyance at her lack of belt to hang her lightsaber hilt on. Now prepared to defend the Halls, she headed for the door. Right as it opened, revealing Rina, who was holding a comm up to her mouth and talking in to it.

Oh shit.

"-We should be able to handle anything the clones can throw at us." She said, finishing some unheard sentence, and giving Ji-Lien a look that clearly stated she was in trouble the second the conversation finished.

" _Good to hear. We'll tell you if Skyfucker heads your way."_

"Understood. Halls out."

Rina closed her end of the conversation, and pocketed the comm, still holding some rather terrifying eye contact.

"What the FUCK are you doing out of bed!? Again! Fucking fuck, do you have a death wish or some shit!?"

"I'm helping with the defense-"

"Yeah, because we need a knight that can barely move to save the day, that's gonna make everything all better. And you definitely won't just distract every healer around you in to trying to protect your dumb ass. I mean fucking hell, I get that you're young, but at least pretend to think through your stupid antics!"

"I- I can't just sit here-"

"You can, and you fucking will. Get back in that bed, or so help me god I am sending somebody in here to tie you to it!"

"Kinky."

"…Girl I am old enough to be your mother, so I'm going to pretend you didn't say that to my face. I'm sure some of the younger healers would appreciate it though, kids are in to some weird shit lately. Now sit the fuck down!"

"But-"

"Sit! The fuck! Down! Immediately!" Rina snapped, gesturing angrily at the bed.

Ji-Lien sat the fuck down.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. If I catch you out of bed again, so help me god I will confiscate your lightsaber."

"…You wouldn't."

"Try me. I dare you. Do I look like I wouldn't? Because I would."

There was the sound of a muffled explosion. Both women's glanced in the direction it came from.

"I have to go do my job. Stay in that bed. Or else." Rina snapped, before leaving.

"Yeah, yeah… asshole."

"AND DON'T THINK I DIDN'T HEAR THAT!"

* * *

Aaron's search for his master was interrupted by the sound of blaster fire, and a child screaming.

Clearly, he had spent entirely too much time around some of his more heroic friends, as his lightsaber was ignited, and he was sprinting towards the location before he even realised what he was doing.

Rounding the corner, he saw pretty much exactly what he suspected, namely a squad of clone troopers firing upon a single Jedi from behind cover. Said man looked like he was beginning to have difficulties, with the constant barrage of blaster fire overwhelming him slowly yet surely.

And Aaron was behind the clones.

He hesitated for a second, before attacking, neatly taking down five of them before he was noticed, and half of their fire turned on him.

But Aaron hadn't survived as long as he had in the war through luck, and he easily deflected their shots back at them clones, taking full advantage of the fact that they didn't have any cover from him.

The little showdown lasted roughly a minute, before all the clones were disposed of. Aaron very firmly forced himself not to think about the fact that the men he had killed had been fighting bravely alongside him less than a week ago, and turned to the master, who had lowered his lightsaber, breathing hard.

"Are you alright?" He asked, walking briskly over to the man.

"Yes, yes, thanks to you-"

His sentence was cut off by a hole appearing between his eyes. He dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut, a look of shock on his face.

The Force whispered a warning, and Aaron threw himself to the side, narrowly missing another shot that had been aimed at him. Looking up, he saw a final clone on a balcony, holding a sniper rifle.

Aaron reached out with the Force, grabbed a hold of the man, and tore him from the balcony, sending him falling gracelessly to the floor, where he was easily dispatched by Aaron's lightsaber.

The source of the screaming from earlier made itself known, as a small group of children tentatively emerged from where they had been taking shelter behind a column. Aaron took a deep breath, and mentally accepted the role that he knew he had to play.

"Alright. Looks like I'm in charge now. How many of you are there?" He said, looking around at the cluster of children, all various species.

"There's fifteen of us. We- we were in class, and-" One of the little girls said, clearly holding back tears.

"Alright. It's going to be okay. I'm gonna get us all to safety." Aaron said calmly, before grabbing his commlink off his belt, and opening up the frequency.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but I'm a senior padawan and I've got a group of fifteen younglings here, and their master just died. I need somewhere safe to take them. Help?"

There was a pause for a minute, as Aaron anxiously shifted his weight, unwilling to move from where he was and take several children out in to the unknown dangers filling the temple.

Finally, his comm came to life again.

" _I hear you kid. Gonna need your position, so I can get you to the nearest spot."_ The woman that was coordinating the defenses said, sounding sure of herself. The confidence of the older jedi did wonders to help sooth Aarons nerves on the matter.

"Course. We're… uh, we're in the north edge of the classrooms, twentieth level."

" _Alright. I'm gonna transfer you over to my eyes on this, she'll direct you to the best spot. Standby."_

Another pause, this one lasting only a few seconds.

" _I'm Micah, I'm watching all the camera's right now. Kid, I've got eyes on you and your group. The nearest safe place to go to is… Oh, wow. Council chambers are empty right now, and if you all hole up in there, I just need to cut power to the elevator and you're completely cut off from the attackers. The path should be relatively clear, but don't drop your guard, got it? Comm me when you reach the elevator, I've shut it down for now, but I'll be able to send you on up when you get there."_

"Of course. Thank you Micah."

" _Not a problem kid. May the Force be with you."_

"And with you."

* * *

Rina stormed down the hall, muttering less-than complimentary things about goddamn idiot kids not listening to their healers like they goddamn should.

Really, this day was not going well for her. At all.

She entered the main lobby, where several healers were standing near the doors, eyes squeezed shut, and hands occasionally twitching, clearly focusing on repelling the invaders outside.

Really, that was the convenient thing about being a Jedi. You could defend your location without ever stepping outside.

"What's our situation?" She said, looking to the room as a whole.

"We're holding them back pretty easily for now, it's gonna take a lot more then what they've got to get in here." One apprentice reported, hunched over a screen.

"What's that?" She asked, pointing at what the apprentice was watching. They looked up, a grin on their face.

"The knight coordinating everything, Xariek or something? She had her friend patch us through the camera feed of what's going on outside. Man, d'you think I could take slicing classes from them? N-not that I enjoy slicing in to stuff. That's illegal. I wouldn't do that."

The apprentice's voice sounded slightly familiar, and it took Rina a second to place them as one of the people that sliced in to the intercoms to do the broadcast. Her mouth twitched in to an amused grin.

"I heard nothing. Just try not to swear so much when you're broadcasting to the whole temple? Because there were absolutely younglings who heard that."

The apprentice matched her grin, before their face froze in mild horror.

"I- uh. I don't know what you're talking about. At all. That- that wasn't me. Doing the broadcast. At all. You're crazy. That's crazy."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Rina laughed, before leaving the room again.

If the Halls of Healing did fall – which was unlikely – she'd like to know if there was a way to evacuate patients, and possibly personnel. That, and she always found it difficult to sit still during a crisis, or any sort of important situation at all. Rina was a very active sort of person. Besides, no sense sitting around where there was something useful she could be doing.

* * *

 **AN: So for the record, the apprentice healer whose voice Rina recognized is the one that yelled "Hey sith dude, I know you can hear this! WE'RE GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!"**

 **Gotta say, I really like them. Shame that they're probably gonna fucking die. Maybe even offscreen too.**

… **Nah, asskicker apprentice managed to grow on me in the span of their handful of lines and no name being given. They get to die on screen like a proper character!**

 **Also please note the idea of Xariek and the entire temple referring to Anakin as Skyfucker is literally just something that came to me mid sentence, and it's going to be staying for a long time. Or until I can figure out a way for someone to find out that he's going by Darth Vader, survive the encounter, and then inform Xariek who can inform everyone else. It's gonna have to happen sometime, because just calling him 'the Sith' is too fucking abstract, and while referring to him as Skyfucker is amazing, that's really going to kill the mood on any serious scenes I'm doing with him in the future. Which is a problem.**

 **Tbh this is turning in to more of a dramedy, or a tragicomedy. Which is good. For comedy to really work, there needs to be a moment where everything suddenly stops being funny. And I like to think I've managed to pull off a few of those moments, but hey. Who knows.**

 **Maybe I would know is some people (that's you) reviewed more?**

 **Review. Please god review. Or shoot me a PM. I live off of validation, I need this to survive.**

 **Also holy fuck this chapter topped 4k words. Nice.**


	5. They Might Be Your Wounds

**AN: HEY REMEMBER WHEN I SAID THAT THERE'D BE FASTER UPDATES LMAO I LIED.**

 **In all fairness, if you go on my profile it does say that I promise nothing for update times. I don't actually have an excuse, I just… didn't have any inspiration. On the bright side, I'm on a roadtrip right now, and as I'm Canadian going from Ontario to Alberta in a car, I've got a lot of fucking time to write and do not much else. I don't know how many chapters I'm banging out today but it's looking to be a lot. All aboard the suffering train.**

 **Also, please know, this chapter hurt a little bit to write. I got more attached than I meant to. I'd make a shitty Jedi apparently.**

 **We'll cry in more detail at the end.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 5: They Might Be Your Wounds

Rina finished her investigations in to potential escape routes, and headed back in to the main area. Things were still looking good, although she noticed several more Jedi had joined the group defending, and the explosions outside were coming with increased frequency.

" _Hey, Xariek to Halls of Healing, you listening? This is important, pick the comm up now."_ Xariek announced, from Rina's commlink.

"This is the Halls, what's up?"

" _Well, your prospects sure as shit aren't. If you've got a way to evacuate, I'd do that right now. Skyfucker's inbound, ETA ten minutes. Force be with y'all down there. Ugh, I just unironically used the word y'all, honestly I hate myself sometimes…"_

Her comm clicked off. Rina gave herself a second to panic, before switching in to business mode.

"Okay, Skyfucker's on his way up to us, we need to evacuate the halls. Immediately!" Rina ordered, summoning up an aura of authority.

"WHAT!?"

"There's a sith coming at us!? What the hell do we do?"

"Evacuate how, we've got a fucking army outside pinning us down!"

"HEY! Cut the fucking whining! We do have a way out. We'll send our patients down the laundry chutes." Rina said, a small grin appearing on her face as she announced her plan.

"…Are you high."

"We're Jedi, it's not like that sort of fall is enough to kill us. Apprentices, start evacuating patients, now! The ones that can walk and move around are first priority. Anybody who wants to, we'll be holding off Skyfucker. Understand that we are unlikely to survive this. Whoever's in, stay in the room. Everyone else, go help the evacuations.

The apprentices scurried off to the back, to start getting the evacuation moving. None of the other healers moved, serious looks in their eyes.

One apprentice stayed as well, the slicer from before.

"Kid, get out of here." Rina ordered, giving them her best intimidating stare. They gave a small smile in return.

"Sorry boss. But I promised Skyfucker an asskicking. Who would I be if I backed out on that?"

"Smarter than the rest of us probably." Another woman said from the entrance. Rina turned around, response almost automatic.

"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT WOMAN IF I TELL YOU TO GET BEDREST THAT MEANS GET BEDREST!" Rina screamed at the teal haired knight that had just entered. Ji-Lien grinned in response, shrugging slightly.

"And you said you'd keep me updated on what's happening, yet here we are. Also, last I checked, I'm the only active warrior in the room. You need me, and not in the Sapphic sense."

Rina squeezed her eyes shut, and gave a long, irritated sigh.

"There's not a goddamn thing I can say to make you leave, is there?"

"Nope."

"Fuck it. Fine, come to hell with the rest of us. Kid, you're in on this party too, huh?" Rina deadpanned, turning to the slicer.

"Fuck yeah." They responded, shooting finger guns at Rina. She sighed again, and turned back to the doors.

"Alright, suit yourselves idiots." She muttered in resignation, igniting her lightsaber and preparing for battle. Behind her, Ji-Lien and the slicer high fived. Rina pretended not to notice.

And then the security doors exploded inwards, taking out two of the healers that were standing too close to them. There was a pause, as the lone sith and handful of Jedi stared at each other, silently assessing.

"Sup Skywalker." Ji-Lien called, raising her teal lightsaber blade in a salute, blatantly ignoring the mood. He gave her an extremely cold look.

"My name is Vader."

"Why are you doing this Vader?" Rina interrupted, clearly hoping to either stall the sith or talk him down. His expression didn't shift much in response, only his eyes flicking over to Rina instead of Ji-Lien.

"The Jedi are corrupt. I am saving the galaxy by destroying them."

"You aren't saving anything! You're a little bitch!" The slicer yelled, earning another high five from Ji-Lien, and a groan of disgust from Rina.

Vader retorted by throwing his lightsaber. It flew across the room, and sliced through the slicer apprentice before they could dodge or block, their head falling to the ground as Vader's lightsaber returned to his hand.

"MOTHER FUCKER!" Rina howled, throwing herself into battle, the rest of the healers and Ji-Lien following her lead.

Despite being around twenty fully trained Jedi fighting one man, it was a ridiculously one sided battle, with Vader slowly yet surely whittling down their numbers one by one. But even with their comrades slowly being killed around them, Rina and Ji-Lien fought, dodging around Vader's attacks and doing their best to take him down, along with the remaining healers.

Nobody could even land a hit on him.

Finally, after about five minutes of battle, Ji-Lien ducked under a bit of thrown debris, and managed to score a nasty graze on his side, a painful burn over his ribs. He hissed in pain, and grabbed Ji-Lien through the Force, preventing her escape.

"Oh, shit." She gasped out, a severe understatement considering he was pulling back to impale her.

"NO!" Rina yelled, running over, attempting to close the gap between her and them.

Vader stabbed.

A body hit the floor, and Vader released his grip on Ji-Lien, turning back to the other healers. Ji-Lien and Rina were too occupied to become threats again.

Rina had dived in front of the blow on instinct, and taken the saber to the gut. Unharmed, Ji-Lien crouched over the older woman, who was breathing heavily, pressing her hands against the wound. Seeing Vader distracted with the remaining fighters, Ji-Lien scooped the woman up, and ran inside the halls.

"What- what are you doing!" Rina gasped out, trying to squirm out of the younger woman's arms while not aggravating her injury.

"I- you need help, now, what do I do? How do I heal you?" Ji-Lien stammered out, skidding to a halt in the hall and looking down at Rina, eyes wide with fear and worry.

Rina stared at her for a second, before squeezing her eyes shut in pain and resignation.

"In that room. No, the one of the left- yeah, there. Put me down on the floor, propped up against the wall, right here." Rina said quietly, breathing becoming more laboured as time went on. Ji-Lien set her down gently on the floor, and stood up again, looking around the room to try and find what Rina had found so necessary about this room.

"Go open that hatch, right behind you." Rina instructed, one hand pressed against her wound.

Ji-Lien went over to the small door, and opened it, sticking her head into investigate.

"The hell do you need a laundry chute for-"

And Rina's force push sent her through the hatch, and tumbling down the chute, and out of the halls.

Her fall was uncontrolled and painful, slamming against the walls of the chute in a tangle of limbs. Her still-injured back was hit against the metal several times, causing her to yelp in pain, before finally, she was deposited out on to a bare concrete floor. She landed on a bad angle, and heard rather than felt one of her ribs crack.

That was the final straw for her abused body, and the young knight passed out, sprawled out awkwardly on the floor from her fall.

Above her, Rina tipped her head back against the wall, and let out a long breath. There wasn't really anything that could be done about her injury anymore, especially without equipment or personnel. All that was left was to slip into unconsciousness, followed by death. She had already accepted it.

Outside, Rina heard screams and shouts as Vader advanced on the halls, slaughtering the apprentices and patients that had been unable to run, the healers that had been fighting him in the entrance having all been slaughtered. The halls were doomed.

With the last of her strength, Rina brought her comm up to her mouth, turning it on.

"Hey. Halls here. Ugh. Skyfuckers going by Darth Vader, and Vader's slaughtering us. Don't send anyone, it's already over. I'm dying, so this is looking like the last time we'll talk. Thanks for everything you girls did, it's not your fault. Force be with you." She mumbled out, an odd feeling of peace washing over her.

"… _May the Force be with you too Rina."_ Xariek replied quietly.

Rina's vision went dark around the edges, and the darkness slowly covered everything she could see.

At least she had managed to save Ji-Lien.

* * *

 **AN: WHOO! THAT SURE HAPPENED!**

 **And yes that did cause me extreme pain to write because I love my children. So much.**

 **Well, that's the end of the Halls of Healing. We're not coming back to 'em. Nobody's left alive in them to go back to so yeah. So our official body count is now Tor, Rina, and slicer apprentice. Because Slicer Apprentice was cool and I liked them. Although I really didn't mean to make them an actual character character.**

 **Also yes I totally bitched out of writing that fight scene with Vader oh my god have I mentioned how much I hate writing action scenes? Because it's a lot, I hate it a lot. Fill in your own good writing for that part lmao. It is not helped that that part was written on a road trip so I couldn't move around and try to think up choreographing that made sense for it. Ah well.**

 **Reviews power the trash gremlin writing this!**


	6. Give 'Em Whiplash

**AN: Two in one day. I'm spoiling you all. Eh, it makes up for the last few months of silence.**

* * *

Chapter 6: Give 'Em Whiplash

Inside the security room, Micah was hugging her knees to her chest in the chair, watching the slaughter of the patients that couldn't escape the halls. Her hands were clasped tightly together to stop them from shaking. Despite this, she was still watching, unable to tear her gaze away from the morbid scene in front of her.

Her comm clicked on, and Xariek's quiet voice sounded, loud in the small, silent room.

" _Hey… how's it looking?"_

"Fucking massacre." Micah replied, voice breaking with grief in the middle.

There was a pause, the silence hanging between the two girls for a long moment. After a minute, Micah broke the quiet, eyes still glued to the slaughter before her.

"Xariek… what if we can't defend the temple?"

" _Don't be like that, of course we can."_

"But Vader-!"

" _But nothing. The temple is our home, the home of every single Jedi. There's nowhere else to go if we don't have the temple. Abandoning it isn't an option, alright?"_

"…Alright."

" _Hey. Chin up love. We can turn this around. We're us, we always manage to make it work. Now, we haven't checked on the crèche sector in a while, how are we looking there?"_

Micah straightened up again, dropping her feet back to the floor, and finally looked away from the halls of healing footage, deftly switching the feeds around.

"Right. Back to work. Okay, looks like a twenty in bound from the south side…"

* * *

" _And there's twenty clones heading at the crèche from the south side. They're about eight halls away, so if anyone in the area wants to go mess them up, now's your chance. Skyfucker – who I have been informed is going by Vader for those of you who think we should be a bit more mature about this – appears to be on the move, and is leaving the halls of healing with his entourage of clone trooper. I don't recommend having a go at them kids. He's heading north on the seventh floor, so if you're there, I'd advise you to not be there real fast."_

Hiding under her bed, Lilly sniffled, clutching her comlink tighter in her hand. She still had heard nothing about if Keira was alright or not… but she had to be. She had to be. Sure, from the sounds of the woman on the comms, the defenders were losing ground, but Lilly's master would be fine. She was always fine.

The woman on the comms was trying to joke about things, and play them off as no big deal, but Lilly was fairly certain things weren't going well, and the knight was just trying to keep herself calm with the humour. Still, if it was working, Lilly couldn't judge, and a few of the dumb jokes had gotten a snicker out of her. Besides, the knight on the broadcast and the knight watching the cameras was the only reason Lilly knew anything about what was happening. She certainly couldn't complain about the method of delivering the only information she could receive.

" _Hey, shit, those of you down in the residential areas need to be on alert, we're seeing some clones roll through, breaking down doors. I'd advise hiding and keeping your ears sharp, alright?"_

As if in response, Lilly heard a thud against the door, loud and forceful. Another one followed quickly, like someone was trying to break it down.

She squeaked in fright, and shut her comm off, shoving it back into her pocket, and pulled her lightsaber into her hand, wiggling further into the shadows under her bed.

There was another thud, followed by a smash as the door gave. Men's voices floated into her room through the closed door, and she pressed a shaking hand over her mouth, trying to ensure her silence.

There was another, much louder crash as her bedroom door was kicked open, and she saw three pairs of feet enter.

"Alright, sweep the room, might be a padawan in here." One of them ordered. The other two made noises of affirmation.

"I've got under the bed, hang on." One of them said, feet right in front of Lilly's eyesight.

Thinking fast, she removed the hand from her mouth and waved it sharply, directing the Force through the gesture.

A box fell over in her closet, creating a small thump.

The feet paused, and turned as one for the closet.

"Fire?" One of them asked. Lilly quietly inched away from the wall of her bed, towards the clones, who would have their backs turned.

"Fire." The leader ordered.

Shots rang out, at the closet that she wasn't in. While they were distracted, she leapt out from under the bed, ignited her lightsaber, and sliced through all thee of them in a single, quick gesture.

The shooting stopped, and the three bodies hit the ground. Lilly's lightsaber dropped as well, slipping out of her shaking hand, the pink blade deactivating before it hitting the floor.

Her legs gave out, and she sank slowly to her knees, staring in muted horror at the bodies.

She had never killed before.

She stayed there, frozen for a long minute, taking in frightened, shaking breaths, staring widely at the bodies on her carpeted floor, and the bloodless carnage she had created, her lightsaber having cauterized instantly, as usual.

One of their comlinks turned on.

" _CT 029-359, report reason for earlier blaster fire? ...Trooper, report."_

Lilly squeaked again in fright, jumping to her feet, and almost bolting for the door, before halting, swaying back and forth with indecision, and seeing no good route of escape from the situation she had ended up in.

" _Hang on, we're coming in there."_

Those words were enough to force her hand, and caused her to run for the door, hoping to escape before she could be cornered.

The fourteen year old sprinted out of the apartment, and into the main hallway- before skidding to a stop, staring in stunned fear at the dozens of clones filling the halls.

* * *

There was the sound of blaster fire nearby, and Keira looked up sharply, wheeling around and running in the direction of it automatically, green lightsaber already out and ready.

She came around the corner and saw a group of clones firing on a padawan, and she reacted, charging in and attacking. The padawan assisted her, and between the two of them, and the surprise of Keira's arrival, the two easily dispatched the attackers.

"Are you alright padawan?" Keira called once it was over, looking over.

"Yes, I'm fine. Kids?" Aaron called, looking around.

The younglings Aaron was escorting came out from hiding around the rubble. Keira blinked in muted surprise.

"My goodness. What's a padawan doing with all these younglings? It's dangerous out here." She said with concern, brow creasing from worry for the children.

"I found them after their teacher was killed, coming from a class. I've been in contact with the two women co-ordinating the defense, Micah's told me to bring them to the council room, it's empty and she can shut down the elevator once we're up." Aaron explained offhandedly, busy counting up the children coming out of hiding. Upon reaching the correct number of children, he nodded, and gestured for them to follow, heading down the hall again.

"Wait, hold on! You're not escorting all those kids alone! Here, I'll assist you. Honestly, teenagers, trying to do everything themselves…" Keira scolded gently, following after them. Aaron paused briefly, before turning slightly red.

"Right. Yes. That makes sense-"

He was interrupted by his and Keira's comms switching on again, and both of them shut up, listening for Xariek's broadcast.

" _Hey, shit, those of you down in the residential areas need to be on alert, we're seeing some clones roll through, breaking down doors. I'd advise hiding and keeping your ears sharp, alright?"_

Keira sucked in a sharp breath, pulling a worried face.

"What is it?" Aaron asked, noticing her worry.

"Nothing, just worried about my apartment. Come on, we need to get the younglings to safety."

Keira walked on ahead, ignoring the teenager behind her raising his eyebrows, before following, gesturing for the children to do so as well. Her mind was occupied with greater concerns.

Namely, the fact that Lilianah was hiding in their apartment. And with the chaos in the Force, Keira wouldn't be able to feel it if she died.

There was a cold pit of fear in her stomach, but she pushed it aside. She was a Jedi master. There were things more important than her own worries.

Lilianah was strong. Keira's padawan could take after herself.

But she was still worried, so she hurried Aaron and the children the rest of the way to council chamber, thankfully encountering little difficulties along the way. Upon arriving at the lift, Aaron and the children hesitated briefly, looking at her as she hung behind slightly.

"Just comm the woman watching the cameras to turn on the lift, you'll be fine, alright? I have to go, I've got other things to attend to. May the Force be with you all." Keira said hurriedly, before sprinting off down the hall.

Aaron watched her go, eyebrows raised slightly, before shrugging, and pulling his comm out, calling Micah.

"Hey, we've reached the lift to the council room."

" _Sweet, just give me a second… and, you're good to go. Head on up kids."_

The doors to the lift whooshed open, and Aaron was quick to herd the younglings inside, glad to be at the end of their journey.

The lift headed up to the top, and promptly shut down again, leaving the group in the council chamber stranded, yet safe.

And at the bottom, Aaron sighed in relief, before jogging off on his own.

He still had to find his master after all.

Korin was bound to be getting worried by now.

* * *

 **AN: Surprise fools, Aaron is Korin's apprentice. Minor plot twist of the fuckin' century.**

 **Anyways, so yes I am leaving Lilly's fate ambiguous on purpose. That purpose is I'm a dick. Just the worst dick. The worst dick of all. The same goes for why Ji-Lien won't be getting brought up again for a while. It's because I'm a dick.**

 **Hey, at least the cast isn't dropping like flies yet! We've yet to hit a double death chapter. That comes later.**

 **And, as always, I survive of constant validation, and reviews are one of my preferred forms of it. Not to be that douche, but it's a lot easier to update a story when I actually feel motivated to do it, y'know? Anyways. Feed the trash lord.**


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